All in all, it's positive — a little less so than in June, but more than was expected.

Any score over 50 indicates that a sector of the economy is growing, while anything below that neutral number means it's contracting.

"The eurozone manufacturing economy showed encouraging resilience in the face of the Greek debt crisis in July," Markit's Chris Williamson said. "The impact of the Greek crisis, and in particular the bank closures, had a striking though not surprising impact on that country's economy, with the Greek PMI signalling the steepest downturn ever seen in the survey's 16-year history. It is clear that Greece's recession deepened significantly in the second quarter."​

The July figures are the first for Q3, offering a sign of how the eurozone is doing as the second half of the year gets underway. Until now, the expansion has been mostly reliant on services rather than manufacturing, though all the major economies (bar France) have been back in growth territory.

Analysts were expecting small improvements, or the same figures as seen in June pretty much across the board for Europe.